Should’ve been dead on a Sunday morning, banging my head

It’s time to light up PETA and HSUS. They’re both great a self-promotion. Not so great at actually helping animals in need. I first became aware of their issues during Katrina. HSUS and the SPCA got into a huge pissing match over who was going to run the show down there. It was all politics and no consideration for the animals. Eventually HSUS took the lead. Without Jane Garrison, the whole thing would have been a bust. She worked tirelessly and I give her credit for recognizing who we were and putting us on the “hot” calls, because we were experienced dog handlers and could deal with the special cases. The DPCA and Special Needs Dobermans were at the ready to get the pure bred Dobermans out of there, on behalf of Doberman owners and because it was the right thing for the National Club to do. HSUS would not allow a breed club to come in and take dogs that were obviously purebred and make other foster arrangements for them. Special Needs Dobermans and the DPCA had the money to board every Doberman they pulled until the owner was ready to take them back. It wasn’t until a well placed phone call was made to the President of the Louisiana SPCA that the DPCA was able to pull those dogs from Lamarr Dixon and get them health care and boarded and in all but one case, rehomed, as the owners could no longer care for them. They (meaning the Disaster Relief team) found every single owner of the 14 purebred Dobermans they pulled. Pasado took one of the Dobermans, that’s always bothered me. They’re the numb nuts that allowed this to happen. (warning, link is gruesome) As a member of the DPCA Disaster Relief Team, I saw the contempt these “activists” had for us. One of them actually asked me to steal a dog for her. Their hypocrisy was mindboggling. What they don’t understand is that if puppy mills are shut down and all breeders become responsible for the life of the animal they breed, then we’re the good guys. Bubba up the block that let his bitch have mixed puppies, so his kids could learn about… oh hell that stupid reason just makes my brain leak out my ear… didn’t show up at Lamarr Dixon to help get those dogs back to their owners. But the National dog club for Doberman Pinschers showed. So did the Rottweiller people, and the GSD people and I’m sure a lot of other breed clubs. We’re not the bad guys. We love our dogs. A lot. We aren’t their guardians or their Mom’s or anything else. They are dogs and we own them. We love them, probably because man was made to have a canine companion. But they’re dogs. We have rights as dog owners and we will not allow butterfly wingnuts like Ingrid Newkirk, (another gruesome link) the biggest dog murderer of all, to have a say in how we humanely treat our pets.

And now for the good guys. Let’s first give a shout out to Doberman Rescue Unlimited. These guys were awarded Rescue of the Year by Pedigree. (They’re the second video, with the dogs running in the snow.)Â Of all the thousands of breed and non breed specific rescues out there, these guys got it. Props all around. To quote Bobby Flay, “just keep doing what you’re doing”.

And finally, AB1634 must be stopped in California. It’s not the right solution for a number of reasons. Levine has hooked up with the AR gangs and is trying to legislate how we treat our dogs and cats. Mandatory spaying and neutering at 4 months is ridiculous. Once again the answer is education. If people understood that they should only leave an animal intact if 1) it really is of the quality that should be bred or 2) sterilization would threaten the animal’s health, then we wouldn’t have the problem we do. My first point is a lot more powerful than just “yeah, she’s a pretty girl”. Quality that should be bred throws out most puppy mills completely. They never health test dogs. They don’t temperament test dogs. They don’t even let them out of their cages. Those dogs are not of the quality that should be bred. If a dog isn’t of the quality that the health testing is clear and the temperament is exceptional, it should not be bred. Period.Â Truly well bred dogs don’t go nuts and bite the family.Â Education is the only solution to that problem, legislation is not. Instead of ignorant inane ads like this PETA piece of crap, why don’t we start talking about what should and should not be bred. And lets talk about where you should be looking to get your purebred dogs from, i.e. not pet store or breeders over the internet where you can’t visit their home and see that the animals have been raised humanely. Then lets see if this really is a problem.

While your brain is busy puking up, my line of thinking takes me to our economic model of capitalism. We can’t get Joe Puppymiller to stop because we said so, but he will stop if people stop giving him money.

Ah, yes… But where there’s a Joe Puppymiller, there’s a Jane Tightwad, who wants a purebred on a “free to good home” budget. You can educate Ms. Tightwad all you want, but does that make her more likely to have patience and save her money up for a quality animal from a reputable breeder? My pennies are on “no”.